"About twelve years," said Jean. "Then you must be starving. We expected you'd come home ravenous, and provided accordingly." "We've been living on the fat of the land," laughed Jean; but they both fell to all the same, and proved beyond doubt that high thought and good living were by no means incompatible. CHAPTER VIII GOING STRONG That same evening a burly, middle-aged man came to the house and requested audience of Mr. Blair. He bore the unmistakable hall-mark, and Kenneth liked the looks of him and the ring of his voice. The two men eyed one another closely as they shook hands. "Mr. Duncan told me you were wanting a captain for your schooner, Mr. Blair. I only heard it half an hour ago, and I've come straight." Blair nodded. "What are your qualifications? It is not everybody's job, you know." "I know all about it, sir. And I think I'm the man for it. My name is Cathie--John Cathie. I sailed my own ship as master for over fifteen years. Quitted the sea three years ago because I'd made enough to live on and the wife wanted me to stop ashore. She died six months ago. I've neither chick nor child, and I want back to the water. When you've spent thirty-five years with live water under your feet, the land comes strange to you!" "Ever been in the South Seas?" "Spent ten years in the Island trade, sir. Know 'em like a book, from the Carolines to the Paumotus; and if you can find a brown man in the whole stretch that has a word against John Cathie I'll--well, you can name your own forfeit." "And the white men?" "Ah--there! Most of 'em all right. Some I'd like to see strung higher than Haman. But that kind's mostly yellow, though some are dirty white." "Know the Dark Islands?" "At a distance. I never landed there. I was only a trader then." "And these men you'd like to see strung up like Haman, only more so, Captain Cathie?" "You know them as well as I do, sir. Kidnappers, black-birders, treacherous devils, scum of the earth. They don't have the times they used to have, but they're not wholly cleared out yet in the outlying groups. I'll be glad to give what time's left me to helping clear them." "You're up to steam?" "Had five years of it." "Any hand with a Long Tom?" "Was gunner's mate for three years on the _Blenheim_ before I got married, and we always carried guns in the Islands," and the bold blue eyes snapped with a touch of puzzlement. "But--I thought it was a missionary cruise you were bound on, Mr. Blair?" "I'm a new kind of missionary, Captain Cathie. The faithful shepherd protects his flock. If the wolves try to steal his lambs, the wolves must take the consequences." "By God, sir, I'm your man!" and the burly one jumped up with a flame in his face, because he could not sit still under the hopes that were in him.